RememberTheMilk

• access to https://www.rememberthemilk.com todo lists via their API
• analyze done and pending tasks
• caching to reduce API usage

Disclaimer: This code uses the Remember The Milk API but is not endorsed or certified by Remember The Milk.

Setup

Register for API usage

register for using the Remember The Milk API here: https://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/api/ and obtain

• api_key
• shared_secret

store these info in rememberthemilk.ini (see rememberthemilk.ini.example)

Install required Python packages

pip install -r requirements.txt

Dev Tools

optionally: ruff and pre-commit

pip install ruff pre-commit

optionally: pytest coverage report

pip install pytest-cov
pytest --cov
# or
pytest --cov --cov-report=html:coverage_report

Obtain API token

run auth.py once and add the resulting token to rememberthemilk.ini

Playing with the API

Analyze tasks completed

tasks_completed.py

• HTML table of completed tasks
• appreciate what you have achieved
• count and sums per calendar week

Analyze tasks overdue

tasks_overdue.py

• HTML table of overdue tasks
• ranked by product of overdue days x priority, to focus on most urgent ones
• display time estimation in minutes to motivate you for solving the minor ones right away

Streamlit for interactive data analysis

pip install streamlit watchdog

streamlit run src/app.py

My RTM lifehacks

see original post at https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/tips/31034/

I use RTM for several years now, mostly for keeping track of periodic todos, e.g. maintenance, backups, doc appointments, cleaning my home, ... and also for one-timers I tend to postpone.

See the RTM forum for other tips.

My RTM setup for tasks

• I use some different lists to group tasks
• I use only few tags, mostly lists instead
• I do not set locations, lists instead
• I set date, prio and estimate to all tasks, especially to periodic tasks, to empower nice smart lists
• for most repetitive tasks I use after instead of each (e.g. watering the flowers)
• for once-a-year tasks I add notes for the details I tend to forget until its due next time

Smart list examples

What I love most of RTM are the dynamic smart lists. Here some examples:

• big Projects -> timeEstimate:">1 hour"
• high Prio -> priority:1
• one-timers -> isRepeating:false
• series -> isRepeating:true AND NOT list:MyListToExclude
• minor (low handing fruits) -> dueBefore:"1 week" and timeEstimate:"<15 minutes" AND NOT list:MyListToExclude
• done 7d (to celebrate what I accomplished) -> completedWithin:"7 day of today"
• created more than a week ago -> NOT addedWithin:"1 week of today"

Smart lists that remind me of adding missing date, prio and estimate

• no Date -> due:never AND NOT addedWithin:"1 week of today"
• no Prio -> priority:none AND NOT addedWithin:"1 week of today"
• no Estimate -> hasTimeEstimate:false AND NOT addedWithin:"1 week of today"
• no List -> list:Inbox
• no Tag -> isTagged:false

see https://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/?ctx=basics.search.advanced

Goal setting and tracking

• I use one list for my goals
• each goal has a prio (= short, medium, far)
• I do not use tags to categorize, but simple prefix in the title, e.g. "JOB", "SPORT"
• to sort the goals by category, I just sort the list by task name (thanks to prefix)
• I usually sort the list by prio
• once a month I check the medium prio goals
• once a quarter I check the low prio goals
• to work towards a goal, I create small repetitive tasks (using after, not every), that use the url field to link to the goal.